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Game on? Public Diplomacy of the Olympic Bid
No full textOn November 29, 2015, following a referendum in which citizens of Hamburg, Germany, registered their opposition to hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Hamburg withdrew its bid. Less than a year later, the Italian Olympic Committee joined Hamburg and officially withdrew its Rome 2024 bid.2 And on February 22, 2017, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced the withdrawal of Budapest’s bid for the 2024 Games. Reasons given for these withdrawals were wide-ranging and included escalating costs, doubts over funding, lack of certainty over legacy benefits, concern about corruption within sports organizations, and anxiety over securit
Influence of the Fitbit Charge HR on physical activity, aerobic fitness and disability in non-specific back pain participants
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Increasing levels of physical activity (PA) and aerobic fitness can reduce non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) yet patient’s physical activity 1 and aerobic fitness 2 have been shown to be lower than healthy counterparts. Pedometers are effective at promoting PA 3, yet more ‘advanced consumer level activity monitors’ (AAMs) can provide greater feedback to the user. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of new advances in commercially available wearable technology on PA, aerobic fitness and disability of low back pain participants.
METHODS: Seventeen participants volunteered and were provided with Fitbit Charge HR (FIT n=9) or pedometer (PED n=8). Participants completed a 6- week, multi-component, physical activity programme lasting two hours per week. All activities were designed to be relevant to activities of daily living.
RESULTS: Non-significant (P>0.05) increases in step count were identified from pre to post intervention in both FIT, (23%) and PED (29%) groups. At one month follow up, aerobic fitness significantly (P0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest feedback on user exercise intensity provided by AAMs, may show promise in improving aerobic fitness. AAMs were not more effective than pedometers at increasing the volume of PA, or reducing disability in NSCLP participants
Religion, Schooling, Community, and Security: Exploring Transitions and Transformations in England
Get PDFEducation is a complex social practice. In the United Kingdom context, schooling is further nested within the complex social practices of community governance, quasi-market public choice, and religion. This essay explores the shifting definitions of community and education in the context of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, which places a duty on all public bodies, including schools, to prevent violent extremism. Drawing on analyses of the “Trojan Horse” moral panic in Birmingham schools in 2014 and guidance documents operationalizing the educational policy changes that followed, two distinct discourses can be observed, derived from different policy directions. One discourse is the social, concerned with integration and at times assimilation toward national norms; and the other is the communal, concerned with internal cohesion and development within the Muslim community. These can be characterized as societal “we identities” in vertical tension (Buzan, 1998)
Expanding the evidence: Developments and innovations in clinical practice, training and competency within voice and communication therapy for trans and gender diverse people
Get PDFBackground: Speech and language therapists (SLTs) deliver voice and communication therapy for trans and gender diverse people to facilitate authentic vocal and communicative expression. Davies, Papp, and Antoni (2015) have provided a comprehensive review of the literature, with recommendations for good clinical care. Several areas highlighted as gaps in the research were identified by the current authors as ones in which evidence is expanding.
Aims: To demonstrate 1) an expansion of the evidence base in particular innovations in voice group therapy for trans women and trans men; 2) the importance of delivering voice and communication therapy as part of a complete approach to trans and gender diverse health care; and (3) developments in training and competency in the UK.
Method: Data were drawn from three small-scale projects, two surveys, and one audit.
Measurements: Data from survey and audits and pre- and post-group acoustic measures of and client self-perceptual measures, including the Transsexual Voice Questionnaire (TVQMtF); a client-generated set of questions for trans men; and the migration of vocal identity map, adapted from Narrative Therapy practices.
Results: Positive outcomes for both pitch measures and client perception were recorded. Audit and survey data provided evidence of developments in training and competency in the UK.
Conclusion: Evidence supports group therapy as a successful approach for trans individuals across a number of parameters of voice and self-perception. Voice group protocols for both trans men and trans women should take account of the social context within which to explore relational presence and authentic voice. SLTs within gender identity clinics provide voice and communication as part of a broader pathway of care, alongside sharing professional knowledge and skills. Current UK developments are documented as indicators of positive responses to the growth in the number of SLTs seeking to develop specialist skills within this field
A Sociological Approach to Acquired Brain Injury and Identity
No full textInspired by the author’s personal experience of sustaining acquired brain injury (ABI), this path-breaking book explores the (re)construction of identity after ABI. It offers a way of understanding ABI through a social scientific lens, promoting an understanding that is generated through close engagement with the lives and experiences of ABI survivors.
The author follows the everyday experiences of six male survivors and critically investigates their identity (re)construction after their ABI. As well as demonstrating identity (re)construction after ABI, the experiences of the participants allow the reader to investigate neurological rehabilitation from their perspective. This book suggests that rehabilitation after ABI is often a continual process that extends beyond the formal, medically prescribed period. It also shows that identity after ABI is often (re)constructed in an unpredictable way; a way that emphasises the importance of reciprocal support and the uncertainty of future life.
A Sociological Approach to Acquired Brain Injury and Identity is essential reading for academics and students from a range of social scientific disciplines with an interest in biographical or ethnographic research methods. This book offers a social scientific view of rehabilitation and as such is also essential reading for academics, students and professionals with an interest in health and illness, particularly neurological rehabilitation and brain injury rehabilitation
UKSDN conference 2017 Creating a Sustainable Sporting Future: Issues, Pathways and Opportunities
Get PDFInfographic: Psychosocial factors associated with outcomes of sports injury rehabilitation in competitive athletes
No full textMethodological determinism and the free will hypothesis.
Get PDFIn this comment on the article by Papanicolaou, we introduce the concept of methodological determinism and discuss the scientific status of the concept of free will. We argue that determinism is an implicit heuristic assumption of modern science, dating back to Newton’s optics. Papanicolaou acknowledges that instances of free will being an illusion have been corroborated. We add that the proposition of free will determining behavior is unfalsifiable. It is, therefore, a metaphysical proposition and not a scientific hypothesis
PReSaFe: A model of barriers and facilitators to patients providing feedback on experiences of safety
Get PDFObjective
The importance of involving patients in reporting on safety is increasingly recognized. Whilst studies have identified barriers to clinician incident reporting, few have explored barriers and facilitators to patient reporting of safety experiences. This paper explores patient perspectives on providing feedback on safety experiences.
Design/Participants
Patients (n=28) were invited to take part in semi‐structured interviews when given a survey about their experiences of safety following hospital discharge. Transcripts were thematically analysed using NVivo10.
Setting
Patients were recruited from four hospitals in the UK.
Results
Three themes were identified as barriers and facilitators to patient involvement in providing feedback on their safety experiences. The first, cognitive‐cultural, found that whilst safety was a priority for most, some felt the term was not relevant to them because safety was the “default” position, and/or because safety could not be disentangled from the overall experience of care. The structural‐procedural theme indicated that reporting was facilitated when patients saw the process as straightforward, but that disinclination or perceived inability to provide feedback was a barrier. Finally, learning and change illustrated that perception of the impact of feedback could facilitate or inhibit reporting.
Conclusions
When collecting patient feedback on experiences of safety, it is important to consider what may help or hinder this process, beyond the process alone. We present a staged model of prerequisite barriers and facilitators and hypothesize that each stage needs to be achieved for patients to provide feedback on safety experiences. Implications for collecting meaningful data on patients' safety experiences are considered